There have now been more measles cases in 2025 than in any other year since the contagious virus was declared eliminated in the United States in 2000, according to new data released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The grim milestone represents an alarming setback for the country’s public health and heightens concerns that if childhood vaccination rates do not improve, deadly outbreaks of measles — once considered a disease of the past — will become the new normal.
Through a pioneering fellowship with Brown’s Pandemic Center, genomic epidemiologist Edyth Parker is working to prevent man-made biological threats and foster responsible innovation by mapping DNA synthesis practices and helping to shape biosecurity policies across Africa.
(TNND) — The U.S. has managed to keep a lid on measles for a quarter of a century.
That’s now at risk.
Johns Hopkins’ Center for Outbreak Response Innovation reports 1,277 confirmed cases of measles so far this year, which eclipsed 2019 to become the highest annual total since measles was declared eliminated in 2000.
And we have half the year left.
“We're deeply worried about it,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center.
I don’t know exactly when I was infected with Ebola. As a doctor in a treatment center in Guinea in 2014, I faced hundreds of potential exposures during the outbreak there.
If I had to guess, the virus probably breached my protective gear while my colleagues and I cared for a young woman in the final moments of her battle with the disease. Each time she vomited or soiled herself, we changed her linens, gently laying her listless body back onto clean, burgundy floral sheets. I knew this ritual wouldn’t save her life. I also knew it carried substantial personal risk. But I refused to let her die without dignity. I know there are many who would do the same.
Key takeaways:
The U.S. is pulling funding from Gavi, claiming the alliance neglected vaccine safety data.
Experts said the decision is not actually about safety but about casting doubt on vaccines.
As secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made it his mission to “make America healthy again.” Yet so far—and you may want to sit down for this—it appears that Worm Guy’s actions, and those of the Trump administration, are at odds with that goal. And by “at odds” we mean they’ve done a whole bunch of stuff that may actually make the people of this country very sick. Sure, Kennedy is pushing to phase out artificial food dyes, but he‘s also undermining life-saving vaccines and spreading misinformation about medications that some people require to get out of bed in the morning—to say nothing of the fake studies in his big report on children’s health. Meanwhile, the Trump administration also wants to keep some forever chemicals linked to cancer in the drinking water, has refused to allow coal plants to close, and obliterated scientific research—the kind that makes breakthroughs and finds cures for diseases.
A running list of the not-so-healthy moves by Kennedy and Trump include:
Rachel Feltman: For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. This is the final episode of our three-part series on bird flu.
(You can listen to episode one here and episode two here.)
On Wednesday we met scientists who are getting their hands dirty with dairy cows and poultry to better understand how H5N1 bird flu is spreading. Today we’ll take a look at efforts to create vaccines for H5N1—and learn why eggs are so critical to the vaccine-making process.
Our host today is Naeem Amarsy, a multimedia journalist based in New York City. Here’s Naeem now.
Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr. says the U.S. will stop funding GAVI due to safety concerns. GAVI is a public-private partnership that vaccinates children in some of the poorest countries. The group has pushed back on the criticism.
Here & Now’s Asma Khalid learns more about the implications with Seth Berkley, the former CEO of GAVI, who is now a senior advisor to the Brown University School of Public Health Pandemic Center.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee is set to meet this week for the first time since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removed all of its sitting members and appointed new ones.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is expected to vote on vaccine recommendations for the fall as well as discuss other vaccines, including those given to children. The group wields enormous influence setting vaccine policy in the United States, including which vaccines will be covered by insurance.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine advisory committee is set to meet for the first time since Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dismissed the entire panel and appointed his own hand-selected members.
Earlier this month, Kennedy removed all 17 sitting members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) and appointed eight new members, some of whom have been critics of shots -- especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The ACIP will meet on Wednesday, June 25, and Thursday, June 26, to review scientific data on some vaccines and vote on some fall recommendations.
Amid controversial dismissals for independent advisers and staff at health agencies, alongside lackluster responses to the bird flu and measles outbreaks, experts fear the US is now in worse shape to respond to a pandemic than before 2020.
H5N1, which has received less attention under the Trump administration than from Biden’s team, is not the only influenza virus or even the only variant of bird flu with the potential to spark a pandemic. But a subpar response to the ongoing US outbreak signals a larger issue: America is not ready for whatever pathogen will sweep through next.
Rapid detection and response to biological threats are critical to global health security. For decades, the United States has played a leading role in international outbreak response. However, recent U.S. policy shifts, including deep cuts to global health programs, reductions in personnel, and withdrawal from key institutions like the World Health Organization, are weakening disease detection and response systems worldwide. These actions threaten outbreak preparedness, data sharing, research collaboration, and frontline response capabilities, increasing the risk of uncontrolled epidemics with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Last November, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said that, as secretary of health and human services, he would not “take away anybody’s vaccines.” If you believed him, you were duped.
The longtime anti-vaccine crusader remains intent on vilifying lifesaving immunizations and promoting the lie that the shots cause autism and all manner of other conditions. Maybe it’s his long history of profiting off vaccine controversy, his convoluted distrust of germ theory, or a eugenicist ideology. But whatever his motivation, four months into Kennedy’s term leading the federal department that oversees the CDC, NIH, and FDA, he has made several policy changes, proclamations, and decisions that directly imperil Americans’ ability to access and afford routine vaccinations.
hey’ve thought of each other as enemies. They’re on opposite sides of a culture war. They believe drastically different things about vaccines.
But, earlier this year, they did the rarest of things: They had a civil discussion and found common ground.
Since April, leading public health experts from institutions like Yale and Brown have been meeting with grassroots members of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s Make America Healthy Again movement, or MAHA, to build trust and bridge deep divides over health care.
The conversations are the brainchild of Brinda Adhikari, a journalist and former television producer who grew increasingly concerned about Americans’ mistrust of institutions after Donald Trump’s reelection.
“These are two groups that talk a lot about each other,” said Adhikari, who has worked for ABC News and executive produced the podcast and television show, “The Problem with Jon Stewart.” “I just don’t see a lot of spaces where they talk to each other or with each other.”
The conversations are captured on Adhikari’s weekly podcast, “Why Should I Trust You?”
This episode was made possible by the support of Yakult and produced independently by Scientific American's board of editors.
Rachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific American’s Science Quickly, I’m Rachel Feltman. You’re listening to the weekly science news roundup. Let’s dive right in.
As top US health officials turn against some mRNA vaccines, experts fear for the country’s preparedness for the next pandemic and worry that other vaccines will be targeted next.
Donald Trump’s administration recently canceled a $766m award to Moderna on the research and development of H5N1 bird flu vaccines, and officials have announced new restrictions and regulations for Covid mRNA vaccines – actions that signal a move away from the breakthrough technology.
These changes add to other vaccine-related shakeups at health agencies, including layoffs and resignations of top vaccine officials and the abrupt termination of HIV vaccine research.
On Monday, Robert F Kennedy Jr, secretary of health and human services, announced he was disbanding the independent advisory committee on vaccines for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
On Monday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote in the Wall Street Journal that “Vaccines have become a divisive issue in American politics,” and “The U.S. faces a crisis of public trust.”
“Whether toward health agencies, pharmaceutical companies or vaccines themselves, public confidence is waning,” Kennedy warned.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., abruptly removes all 17 sitting members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). An epidemiologist explains how this will affect people’s health and vaccine access.
(TNND) — Health officials are sounding alarms over Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s decision to overhaul a vaccine advisory board with his appointees.
The Health and Human Services secretary announced Monday in a Wall Street Journal opinion article that he was replacing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
The ACIP is an expert scientific panel that develops vaccine recommendations for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The immunization schedule, or list of recommended shots, for kids is based on the panel’s advice to the CDC.
The ACIP recommendations have consequences for which vaccines insurers are willing to cover and which vaccines doctors recommend to their patients.
For the first time since the COVID vaccines became available in pharmacies in 2021, the average person in the U.S. can’t count on getting a free annual shot against a disease that has been the main or a contributing cause of death for more than 1.2 million people around the country, including nearly 12,000 to date this year.
“COVID’s not done with us,” says Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist at Brown University. “We have to keep using the tools that we have. It’s not like we get to forget about COVID.”
In recent weeks, the Department of Health and Human Services, led by prominent antivaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., has announced a barrage of measures that are likely to reduce COVID vaccine access, leading to a swirl of confusion about what will be available for the 2025–2026 season. HHS officials did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
In December 2024, a group of scientists did something rare: published a warning against building a technology that some of them had spent years working toward. Even more eye-popping, this came at least a decade before the tech is even possible.
The warning concerned mirror bacteria: hypothetical synthetic organisms built from mirror-image forms of the proteins, amino acids, DNA, and other biomolecules used by life on earth.
In an analysis published in Science, we and 36 colleagues—including two Nobel Laureates and 16 members of national academies from around the world—argued that such organisms could be built within the next 10 to 30 years and could pose an extraordinary threat if they were.
---
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s plans to consolidate data on diseases like measles and polio are raising concerns about patient privacy, delays in spotting long-term trends and ways the Trump administration may use the information.
The agency told state officials earlier this week that it would shift disease information to a new system managed by Palantir, the data analysis and technology firm co-founded by Peter Thiel.
The Trump administration’s cancellation of $766 million in contracts to develop mRNA vaccines against potential pandemic flu viruses is the latest blow to national defense, former health security officials said. They warned that the U.S. could be at the mercy of other countries in the next pandemic.
“The administration’s actions are gutting our deterrence from biological threats,” said Beth Cameron, a senior adviser to the Brown University Pandemic Center and a former director at the White House National Security Council. “Canceling this investment is a signal that we are changing our posture on pandemic preparedness,” she added, “and that is not good for the American people.”
Prior to becoming Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had espoused the idea of "medical freedom," the ability of people to make personal health decisions for themselves and their families without corporate or government coercion.
It's an idea supported under Kennedy's Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement to reduce the prevalence of chronic disease in the U.S. by making healthier lifestyle choices.
On topics, such as vaccines, Kennedy has said he wouldn't prevent children from being able to receive vaccines but would leave the choice up to parents.
The user-friendly weekly report provides valuable information about the spread of infectious diseases like measles, influenza and COVID-19 to physicians, public health leaders and the public.
Season 3, Episode 11: In this episode, Marla Dalton, PE, CAE, and William Schaffner, MD, talk with Craig Spencer, MD, MPH, emergency physician and global health expert, about what it takes to lead in times of crisis. From treating Ebola patients in Guinea to navigating COVID-19 in New York, he reflects on the power of empathy, the importance of cultural understanding, and the pursuit of health equity. He also shares the personal sacrifices behind public service—and why the lessons of past pandemics must not be forgotten.
Associate professor at Brown University School of Public Health, Spencer has nearly 2 decades of experience in global health and humanitarian response, having worked on critical public health issues across Africa, Southeast Asia, and beyond, including leading epidemiological responses during the West African Ebola outbreak. His work focuses on the historical foundations of public health, humanitarian response, and pandemic preparedness. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Washington Post and more. He is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the Board of Advisors for Doctors Without Borders USA.
While the immediate effects of the US cuts in health aid are being felt primarily by the Global South, the associated risks extend worldwide.
Last week, global leaders gathered for the World Health Assembly in Geneva to address the reality that the global health landscape is being reshaped by dramatic shifts in funding, priorities, and leadership.
Chief among these is the United States’ decision to slash foreign aid and withdraw from the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite spending only 0.24% of its gross national income on foreign aid, the United States has been the largest donor to global health programmes, providing one-third of the international assistance in global health. This is not just a US issue – other countries have also signalled reductions in foreign health aid, and Argentina also recently announced it will withdraw from the WHO.
These dramatic shifts have forced the WHO to plan a reduction in staff by nearly 50%, triggering massive restructuring. Non-government organisations (NGOs) are laying off large numbers of staff worldwide. While other donors and philanthropies are stepping in, they cannot fill the void alone.
Meanwhile, the shock to the system is already resulting in lives lost. According to the WHO, countries such as Haiti, Kenya, Lesotho, South Sudan, Burkina Faso and Nigeria may run out of HIV antiretroviral medications within months.
NTI’s “Young Voices” series highlights early-career professionals making their mark as part of the community of experts tackling today’s existential threats. This series reflects NTI’s commitment to uplift a range of voices and ideas, help break down stereotypes that contribute to generational divides on security and give a platform to young people to share creative ideas that address the evolving threats imperiling humanity.
Sara Kaufman, Executive Assistant and Events Coordinator for NTI’s Global Biological Policy and Programs team (NTI | bio) had the chance to speak with Thokozani Nyasulu-Liwewe, a medical doctor and global health professional with a remarkable career path dedicated to improving health outcomes and strengthening health systems. Currently, Thokozani serves as the Clinical Lead for the District Health Office under the Ministry of Health in Lilongwe, the capital of Malawi. She is also a 2024 Game Changers Fellow with the Brown University Pandemic Center and Pandemic Action Network. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
People with measles, a highly contagious disease, are traveling on airplanes, raising concerns about the spread of the respiratory virus as global cases rise and summer travel season gets underway in the United States.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning that people can get infected with measles during travel or at crowded events, unless they are fully vaccinated or have had the disease.
"Travelers can catch measles in many travel settings, including travel hubs like airports and train stations, on public transportation like airplanes and trains, at tourist attractions, and at large, crowded events," the CDC said in its updated advisory Tuesday.
For those planning summer travel or going to concerts, getting vaccinated is the best way to stay safe, the CDC and health-care experts say.
"If you're fully vaccinated against measles, this is not something I think you have to put on your worry list this summer," said Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.
Here's what to know about the advisory, how measles is spread and how you can protect yourself.
What does the CDC's updated advisory say?
The agency has received 62 reports of people with measles traveling on airplanes since the beginning of the year, a spokesperson said. It has investigated 50 cases of travelers flying into the U.S. or domestically and found "only one situation" in which measles appeared to have been transmitted during air travel, the spokesperson said in an email.
The U.S. is experiencing the biggest outbreak of measles since 2020. As of Thursday, 1,088 confirmed measles cases and three confirmed deaths have been reported by 32 states, according to the CDC.
"We are on track to have, perhaps, one of the worst measles years that we've had in the last 25 years since we eliminated measles," Nuzzo said.
The agency recommends that all international travelers, including infants 6 to 11 months old, get the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine if they do not have proof of immunity, because it provides the best defense against the highly contagious virus. Most people in the U.S. have gotten these shots as children, but a measles vaccine booster may help some adults.
"Most people who bring measles into the United States are unvaccinated U.S. residents who get infected during international travel," the CDC said in its advisory.
How does measles spread?
Measles is one of the most infectious diseases, Nuzzo said. It can be severe for individuals at any age and can lead to life-threatening complications such as pneumonia and even death. A rash — usually the telltale sign of infection — high fever, cough, runny nose and red, watery eyes are some common symptoms of measles.
One of the reasons the highly contagious virus can spread is because, at first, the infection can look like the common cold or another respiratory illness, said William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
Infected individuals can spread measles up to four days before or after their rash begins, the CDC says.
The virus is spread through coughing and sneezing, and it can live for up to two hours in the air or on surfaces, the CDC says. "It travels through larger droplets when we sneeze or cough, and the virus can stay suspended in the air for one or two hours floating in smaller droplets," said Moss, also a professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
You can get infected if you breathe the contaminated air or touch the infected surface and then touch your eyes, nose or mouth, the CDC says.
How should I protect myself before traveling?
The MMR vaccine is the best protection against the measles virus, health-care experts said. The vaccine also guards against mumps and rubella.
But there's evidence that vaccination rates are decreasing in some parts of the U.S. Since the pandemic, there's been a widespread decline in MMR vaccination rates of children, according to a letter published Monday in JAMA.
Children could get the measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine, which also protects against chicken pox, the CDC said.
The agency recommends that infants 6 to 11 months old get one dose of the MMR vaccine at least two weeks before travel and two more doses after turning 1 — at 12 to 15 months and at 4 to 6 years.
"Children 12 months old and older, teenagers, and adults who are unsure of their immunity against measles should receive two doses of MMR vaccine at least 28 days apart before international travel," the CDC said in its advisory.
What is the risk of catching measles on a plane?
It's possible for someone to contract the virus on a plane, Nuzzo said, but she is more concerned about unvaccinated travelers who are traveling to places with ongoing measles outbreaks.
"Not to say that you can't get it on a plane," Nuzzo said. "But the probability of sitting next to somebody who has measles on a plane is much lower than, say, going to a place where there's a high burden of measles."
The risk from air travel is more about whom you're coming in contact with in the places you're visiting. "The act of travel itself is not particularly risky, nor is the act of even riding on an airplane," Nuzzo said.
The air circulating through the cabin of an airplane is filtered, she said. So, the potential risk comes from sitting next to a person who's sick with measles, not necessarily the person in a different part of the plane.
"It's a respiratory disease," Nuzzo said. "If you want to reduce the likelihood of becoming infected somewhere, you can wear a mask."
If you're worried about contracting an infection on a plane, Nuzzo said, the most important times to wear a mask are before takeoff and after landing, when the plane's air filtration often has been turned off. "But airports and airplanes are not by themselves particularly risky," she said.
Nuzzo said she does not wipe down surfaces when she is on a plane. "I think the surfaces are sometimes gross, and I've often wished I had a wipe, but I'm not scared enough to travel with them," she said. "It's really about your risk tolerance."
What about airport terminals?
People have been infected in airport terminals. In 2014, four unvaccinated individuals who passed through the same U.S. airport terminal contracted measles. "The exposures in this report were not prolonged and occurred in a domestic rather than an international terminal," according to a report published by the CDC.
"We don't need folks to panic about going outside or to public spaces," Margot Savoy, a senior vice president at the American Academy of Family Physicians, said in an email. "But they do need to be aware that measles, once eliminated here in the U.S., is back. And though it started out only impacting small unvaccinated communities, the exposures and cases continue to rise all across the country."
How far in advance of travel should I get vaccinated?
If you are unsure of your immunity, see your doctor at least six weeks before you travel to allow enough time to get fully vaccinated, said Scott Roberts, an assistant professor of infectious diseases at Yale School of Medicine.
Some people, including those who are pregnant, have a weakened immune system or have gotten other vaccines in the past four weeks should not get the MMR vaccine or should wait, the CDC says. "Travelers unable to safely receive a measles-containing vaccine should talk to their clinician and consider postponing their trip," the agency advises.
Should I get a booster shot of the measles vaccine?
The answer depends on when you were born, your vaccine records and whether you plan to travel internationally.
People born before 1957 are assumed to have been exposed to measles when they were a child, Savoy said in March.
Some adults who received the vaccine between 1963 and 1967 (less than 5 percent, according to the CDC) may have received a version of the measles vaccine that isn't as effective, Adam Ratner, the director of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said in March. If you fall into that age range and you are not sure what version of the vaccine you got, the CDC recommends another dose.
People born between 1968 and 1989 possibly got one dose of the measles vaccine, instead of the two given to children today. The CDC says one dose is enough for most adults but recommends two doses of the vaccine for anyone planning international travel. And health officials may recommend that people get a second dose of the vaccine if there's a local measles outbreak.
If you got two doses of the measles vaccine, experts said, a booster isn't going to provide any additional protection.
A person's vaccine-induced measles immunity can wane over time, but it's rare, Ratner said. What can happen is "primary vaccine failure," when a person doesn't respond to one dose of the measles vaccine and they're not protected against the virus, Ratner said. This is why children get a second dose, to ensure they have the antibodies, he said.
There are lab tests that can measure a person's antibody protection against measles, Savoy said. But the test may not be covered by insurance, and the results are only an approximate measurement of a person's risk if they are exposed to the virus, she said.
What should I do if I'm unvaccinated and have been exposed to the virus?
Getting the MMR vaccine within 72 hours of exposure can provide some protection or lessen symptoms, and does not cause harm, the CDC says. It also may prevent future disease.
A medication called immunoglobulin, taken within six days of exposure, also provides some protection against measles or helps make the illness milder, the agency says.
States with reported measles cases
Cases have been confirmed by the CDC in Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state.
Globally, many countries have reported measles outbreaks, including large outbreaks in Mexico and Canada, leading the CDC to recommend "vaccination against measles before traveling to any international destination."
Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
Word count: 1733
Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post Jun 2, 2025
The U.S. government is pulling its funding for drugmaker Moderna to continue testing an mRNA vaccine intended to protect people from the bird flu.The move came a day after Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the government would stop recommending the COVID-19 vaccine, which also commonly uses mRNA technology, for healthy children and pregnant women.
“After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” Health and Human Services spokesman Andrew Nixon said via an emailed statement. “This is not simply about efficacy—it’s about safety, integrity, and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public.”
The government had awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to Moderna, including $590 million in January.
What if we could outsmart a pandemic virus even before it emerges? With the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) landscape, this hypothetical is becoming a public health reality. From predicting which viral family the next pandemic may spill over from, to forecasting how a virus might evolve, AI is reshaping the way the world can prepare for and respond to pandemic threats.
As these growing capabilities gather pace, we also recognize the essential need to ensure their use is responsible, ethical and secure. The need to strike this balance is being recognized increasingly across the world.
The Trump administration has delivered its latest blow to vaccines, canceling a nearly $600-million contract to the drugmaker Moderna that was intended to develop a shot for humans against bird flu.
The decision also forfeited the U.S. government’s right to purchase doses ahead of a pandemic, and canceled an agreement set up by the Biden administration in January to prepare the nation for a potential bird flu pandemic. The Moderna contract built on a previous government investment of $175 million last year.
The move was not entirely unexpected. The Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this year that it was reviewing the contract. And Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has repeatedly questioned the safety of mRNA technology, which is used in Moderna’s Covid vaccine.
First used for the Covid vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, mRNA shots instruct the body to produce a fragment of the virus, which then sets off the body’s immune response.
Andrew Nixon, a Health and Human Services spokesman, said: “After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable.”
For several years, a type of avian flu known as H5N1 has circulated around the world, killing wild birds and domestic flocks, and spreading to a range of other species including bears and sea mammals.
It arrived in the United States in 2022, and has resulted in the culling of more than 173 million birds, frequently devastating commercial poultry flocks.
Last year, bird flu also spread to dairy cattle. It has since struck more than 1,000 herds in 17 states and sickened 70 people, most of them dairy or cattle workers. In January, Louisiana reported the death of an older adult who had interacted with sick backyard birds, the first such fatality in the United States.
So far, the virus does not seem to spread easily among people. But scientists have long worried about a bird flu pandemic because flu viruses can rapidly mutate and acquire new abilities.
The national stockpile holds a few million doses of an existing H5N1 vaccine to protect humans. But it is unclear whether the shots would continue to protect Americans if the virus were to change significantly. The government has three other avian flu contracts, according to the health department.
Many scientists regard mRNA vaccines, which can be quickly altered to match the newest versions of virus, as the best option for protecting Americans in a fast-moving outbreak.
“When the next flu pandemic occurs, there is not going to be enough vaccine for everyone who wants it unless we invest to broaden the types of flu vaccines being made and the number of companies that make them,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at the Brown University School of Public Health.
“We shouldn’t let politically motivated attempts to unfairly brand mRNA vaccines as dangerous stand in the way of ensuring everyone who wants a pandemic vaccine can get one,” she said.
Moderna’s contract covered several types of flu viruses that have the potential to cause a pandemic. In response to the government’s decision, Moderna said it would explore alternatives for developing its vaccines.
Mr. Kennedy’s ideas for containing bird flu are unorthodox. He has suggested that instead of culling birds when the infection is discovered, farmers should let the virus run through the flocks. Then, he has said, farmers should identify birds that survive the illness and study them to identify the source of their immunity. Many scientists assert that would be inhumane and dangerous.
Last week, Mr. Kennedy urged the Canadian authorities not to kill 400 ostriches that had been exposed to H5N1, and Dr. Mehmet Oz, who oversees Medicare and Medicaid, offered to relocate the birds to his ranch in Florida.
Mr. Kennedy has long waged a campaign against some vaccines, particularly those based on mRNA. He has incorrectly and repeatedly said that the Covid vaccines using mRNA were the “deadliest” vaccines ever made.
Experts said his views were out of step with the science.
“Pandemic preparedness is about being proactive, fast and adaptable — the mRNA vaccine platform is all of that,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“The rationale given is likely fabricated and more of a function of R.F.K. Jr.’s assault on vaccines, the value of which he evades,” he added. “Canceling this contract makes the world less safe.”
Apoorva Mandavilli reports on science and global health, with a focus on infectious diseases, pandemics and the public health agencies that try to manage them.
The post U.S. Cancels Contract With Moderna to Develop Bird Flu Vaccine appeared first on New York Times.
The federal government announced Wednesday that it is cancelling a contract to develop a vaccine to protect people against flu viruses that could cause pandemics, including the bird flu virus that's been spreading among dairy cows in the U.S., citing concerns about the safety of the mRNA technology being used.
The Department of Health and Human Services said it is terminating a $766 million contract with the vaccine company Moderna to develop an mRNA vaccine to protect people against flu strains with pandemic potential, including the H5N1 bird flu virus that's been raising fears.
"After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna's H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable," HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon said in a statement.
"This is not simply about efficacy — it's about safety, integrity, and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public," Nixon said.
He added that "the move signals a shift in federal vaccine funding priorities toward platforms with better-established safety profiles and transparent data practices. HHS remains committed to advancing pandemic preparedness through technologies that are evidence-based, ethically grounded, and publicly accountable." The official did not provide any additional details.
Jennifer Nuzzo, the director of Brown University's Pandemic Center, said the decision was "disappointing, but unsurprising given the politically-motivated, evidence-free rhetoric that tries to paint mRNA vaccines as being dangerous."
"While there are other means of making flu vaccines in a pandemic, they are slower and some rely on eggs, which may be in short supply," Nuzzo added in an email. "What we learned clearly during the last influenza pandemic is there are only a few companies in the world that make flu vaccines, which means in a pandemic there won't be enough to go around. If the U.S. wants to make sure it can get enough vaccines for every American who wants them during a pandemic, it should invest in multiple types of vaccines instead of putting all of our eggs in one basket."
The cancellation comes even though Moderna says a study involving 300 healthy adults had produced "positive interim" results and the company "had previously expected to advance the program to late-stage development."
"While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis of the Phase 1/2 study of our H5 avian flu vaccine and we will explore alternative paths forward for the program," Stéphane Bancel, Moderna's chief executive officer, said in a statement. "These clinical data in pandemic influenza underscore the critical role mRNA technology has played as a countermeasure to emerging health threats."
The administration's move drew sharp criticism from outside experts.
"This decision puts the lives and health of the American people at risk," said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of the Brown School of Public Health, who served as President Biden's COVID-19 response coordinator.
"Bird Flu is a well known threat and the virus has continued to evolve. If the virus develops the ability to spread from person to person, we could see a large number of people get sick and die from this infection," Jha said. "The program to develop the next generation of vaccines was essential to protecting Americans. The attack by the Administration on the mRNA vaccine platform is absurd."
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota agreed.
"This decision will make our country far less prepared to respond to the next influenza pandemic," he said in an email. "This is a dangerous course to follow."
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the H5N1 flu virus has spread to 41 dairy herds, and 24 poultry farms and culling operations, and caused 70 human cases. While the virus has had a high mortality rate in other countries, so far H5N1 has only caused one death in the U.S. and has not shown any signs of spreading easily from one person to another. But infectious disease experts are concerned that the more the virus spreads, the greater the chance it could mutate into a form that would spread from person to person, which would increase the risk of a pandemic.
Five years after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, and 82 days after the inauguration of President Donald Trump, dozens of people gathered in a Washington D.C. townhouse to celebrate Jay Bhattacharya, who had recently been confirmed as director of the National Institutes of Health, the world’s top agency for biomedical research. Most of the guests were not scientists or beltway insiders, but citizen-activists like Kelley Krohnert, a Georgia photographer and mother who gained an online following during the pandemic for her sharp criticism of public health policy. In a picture posted on Facebook, she stands next to Bhattacharya, who is dressed in a plaid shirt and gray blazer, smiling while holding what looks like a tall glass of ice water.
Though countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, sometimes collectively called the Global South, are increasingly central to scientific research, disease surveillance, and public health innovation, they historically have had little say in the shaping of policies meant to keep international health crises at bay. They were to provide the pathogen samples, for example, so that wealthier countries could develop vaccines. Poorer countries, though, couldn’t expect equitable access to the knowledge and medicine that came from their contributions. During health scares, they have been last in line for access to life-saving technologies.
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the implications of this inequality: By late 2021, high-income countries, for example, were averaging more than one vaccine dose per person while low-income countries were administering fewer than four doses per hundred people. And while wealthy countries could develop and distribute vaccines, the African continent, by and large, could not. The recently adopted Pandemic Agreement, emphasizing thing like the need for stronger health systems, better resource sharing, and rapid local manufacturing of vaccines is a step in the right direction, but there is more that still needs to happen to address the world’s uneven ability to prepare for or respond to pandemics. Global health forums like the World Health Assembly, where the pandemic agreement was recently approved, need to fully incorporate the voices and expertise of young people in the Global South, where 90 percent of the world’s 15- to 24-year-olds live.
At the 2023 World Health Assembly, which is the governing body of the World Health Organization (WHO), only 13 of 194 member states included young delegates. That’s less than 7 percent of countries, most of which were high-income. Even when young people participate in these delegations, the roles are limited to advocacy or advisory input, risking a loss of ideas that could strengthen real-world preparedness and response. This absence is particularly striking given how acutely young people are affected by biological threats—from disrupted education and social well-being to long-term economic and mental health impacts.
Young people are already shaping how the world responds to biological threats and helping build the systems that support equitable public health. During COVID, an initiative in Micronesia tackled misinformation by helping shape a direct communication campaign that reached over 20,000 people and improved vaccine uptake by over 30 percent, blending tech-savviness with cultural insight. In Uganda, a group of young people mapped the underserved border districts hit hardest by COVID. Using an existing open-map database, they helped turn blank areas into usable data, supporting government and frontline responders in their efforts.
Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center and Professor of Epidemiology at Brown University, reviews depictions of epidemics in Twilight (2008), The Last of Us (2023), Outbreak (1995), and Contagion (2011), and discusses how they relate to real public health systems today.
This video was created by BPR Producer Clara Baisinger-Rosen. The BPRM Video Team is led by Ayana Ahuja, and the BPR Multimedia Board is led by Solomon Goluboff-Schragger. Special Thanks to Jennifer Nuzzo, Amina Fayaz, Elliot Smith, Jordan Lac, and Grace Leclerc.
The Covid-19 virus in the U.S. has largely faded from view. But it hasn't faded away.
National wastewater data shows low Covid-19 activity, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The weekly reported Covid-19 deaths in April were slightly down compared with the same time a year earlier, federal data shows. Still, more than 300 Covid-19-related deaths were reported weekly as recently as mid-April.
Some infectious-disease specialists said they expect more cases this summer, as there have been somewhat regular summertime increases in the past. Others cautioned that Covid-19 can still surprise us, more than five years after it spurred a global pandemic that killed more than 1.2 million Americans.
"It is at our lowest levels it has been since the beginning of the pandemic," said Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "Our challenge is we don't know what that means for tomorrow."
The Trump administration on Tuesday released a more stringent set of guidelines for approving Covid-19 vaccines , requiring randomized controlled trials for new Covid-19 vaccines for many children and adults. The Food and Drug Administration expects it will be able to approve shots for adults older than 64 and other high-risk groups based on antibody testing.
The original Covid-19 shots were tested in large, randomized trials with placebos. The vaccines updated to match newer versions of the virus have been tested with antibody testing to ensure that they triggered an immune response.
As of May 10, the CDC projected that 70% of cases were caused by a version of the virus called LP.8.1. It is an offshoot of the Omicron variant, which first appeared in late 2021, and is related to the JN.1 variant, which was the target of last season's booster shots. The LP.8.1 version has picked up new mutations but hasn't yet led to an increase in cases or hospitalizations.
"Because there are so many people who have been vaccinated and infected, there is a high amount of immunity in the population," said Andrew Pekosz, director of the Center for Emerging Viruses and Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins University. "I think we're also seeing that as a way to dampen the spread of the virus."
Surveillance and monitoring for changes in the virus are continuing, Pekosz said, but at much lower levels than before, so there is more reliance on modeling to suss out variant spread. Hospitalization and death data remains the most reliable, though that data is now slower to arrive, some researchers said. All hospitals were no longer required to report data as of the close of April 2024, one of several data changes made at the end of the public health emergency.
Deaths from the virus are heavily concentrated among adults ages 65 and above, with more than 81% of Covid-related deaths occurring in that group, according to the CDC. But people of all ages can get seriously ill from a Covid-19 infection, the agency said, especially those with underlying medical conditions.
Covid-related hospitalizations in the U.S. are currently on the decline. There were some 1.3 hospitalizations per 100,000 people during the week ended April 26, down from a winter peak of 4.2 per 100,000 people for the week ended Jan. 4, CDC data shows. That rate is down from the winter of 2023-24, when hospitalization rates peaked at 7.8 per 100,000 people. The data is from a surveillance network of acute-care hospitals across 13 states.
Most years, the U.S. has experienced additional Covid-19 waves in late spring or summer, in addition to wintertime surges. Last year, a summertime wave peaked at around the week of Aug. 31, with more than 1,300 deaths reported, CDC data shows. Still, the virus has yet to fall into a fully predictable seasonal pattern, infectious-disease experts said.
"While we're in a better place this year than we were in previous years, I cannot tell you we will always continue to be in a better place," said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the pandemic center at Brown University. "There's still a lot of questions we don't have answers to."
Write to Brianna Abbott at brianna.abbott@wsj.com
By Brianna Abbott
Word count: 679
Copyright 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
The termination letter arrived in Sabra Klein’s email inbox on March 25, telling her to immediately stop all work on a $10.9 million, five-year grant to research variations in people’s immune responses to COVID-19.
The grant funded the Serological Science Center of Excellence, which Klein, PhD ’98, MS, MA, a professor in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI), had to shut down that day, along with her fellow investigators across the National Cancer Institute’s Serological Sciences Network (SeroNet), which encompassed 25 research institutions. Klein and her co-principal investigator, Infectious Disease Professor Andrea L. Cox, MD, PhD, supported 40 workers across the schools of Public Health and Medicine. Klein had no choice but to immediately let go of four people from her team.
Health officials are making a renewed call for vigilance against bird flu, but some experts are puzzling over why reports of new human cases have stopped.
Has the search for cases been weakened by government cuts? Are immigrant farm workers, who have accounted for many of the U.S. cases, more afraid to come forward for testing amid the Trump administration’s deportation push? Is it just a natural ebb in infections?
“We just don’t know why there haven’t been cases,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University. “I think we should assume there are infections that are occurring in farmworkers that just aren’t being detected.”
The H5N1 bird flu has been spreading widely among wild birds, poultry and other animals around the world for several years, and starting early last year became a problem in people and cows in the U.S.
Early last month, after two Texas children had died of measles, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. acknowledged that the MMR vaccine prevents the spread of that virus. But later that day, he posted photos of himself with anti-vaccine doctors, calling them "extraordinary healers" and promoting unproven treatments.
In a television interview three days later, Kennedy, the nation's top health official, encouraged vaccination for measles. In the same conversation, he cast doubt on whether one of the children had actually died of measles-related complications.
And in an interview with Phil McGraw at the end of April, Kennedy said of the measles vaccine: "HHS continues to recommend that vaccine. But there are problems with the vaccine."
With the nation in the grip of the deadliest measles outbreak in decades, Kennedy is equivocating with a worried U.S. public, health experts said. His mixed message appeals to vaccine believers and skeptics, muddying public health instructions at a time when clarity is essential.
Elevated from longtime anti-vaccine activist to guardian of the nation's health, Kennedy is trying to appeal to both sides: the public, which largely supports vaccination, and the anti-vaccine hard-liners who helped propel his rise. His "doublespeak," as public health experts and academics who follow the anti-vaccine movement call it, gives him cover with both groups, allowing him to court public opinion while still assuaging his anti-vaccine base.
At least half of adults are uncertain whether to believe false claims about measles, its vaccine and its treatment, according to an April poll by the health-care think tank KFF.
"It's confusing, and maybe that's part of the strategy," said Bruce Gellin, who oversaw HHS's vaccine program in the Bush and Obama administrations. Gellin noted that confusion could lead parents to opt out of vaccination — exactly what health officials don't want in an outbreak.
In a statement about vaccination, HHS said: "Secretary Kennedy's HHS has pledged radical transparency to the American public. This means being honest and straightforward about what we know — and what we don't know — about medical products, including vaccines."
Vaccines go through several stages of clinical trials, are tested on thousands of people, and are monitored after they are rolled out for any adverse events. Medical experts say they are safe, effective and considered one of the best tools for protecting public health.
When asked about the unproven treatments Kennedy had promoted, an HHS spokesperson said Kennedy will be enlisting the scientific community and the department to "activate a scientific process to treat a host of diseases, including measles, with single or multiple existing drugs in combination with vitamins and other modalities." It is unclear what that will entail, but Kennedy has long advocated the use of vitamins and supplements.
Kennedy is scheduled to appear Wednesday before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, where he is expected to face questions on his vaccine policies.
The outbreak in Texas has spread across the state and beyond, including a significant uptick of cases in El Paso. Experts worry the United States this year will record the largest number of cases since measles was declared eliminated a quarter-century ago. A recent study showed that if U.S. vaccination rates continue to decline, the nation could face millions of cases over the next 25 years.
Once an outbreak begins, health officials have only a short time to convince the U.S. public that vaccination is the proven way to save lives, said Chrissie Juliano, executive director of the Big Cities Health Coalition. The MMR vaccine — which protects against measles, mumps and rubella — is safe and effective, public health experts say.
"The public's confused, and local and state health officials on the ground are really having to carry a whole lot of water without having … all that backup that they're used to," Juliano said.
Some vaccine skeptics say they are also frustrated about Kennedy's mixed messaging because he has not gone far enough to condemn immunization. But they are urging followers to stick with him.
After Kennedy's social media post encouraging vaccination, the chief executive of the anti-vaccine group Kennedy founded said in a video message posted to X: "What he says does not speak for Children's Health Defense in any way at this point." But, Mary Holland said, "we have to respect the role that he's in."
In an interview, Holland said she didn't believe Kennedy considered his statement sufficient. "I don't think he probably thinks that's the whole story. So we have gone out with additional information," she said.
On the day she posted that message, her group reached out to its subscribers: "HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is breaking down the government-sanctioned roadblocks erected to protect Big Pharma's profits and keep people in the dark about childhood vaccines," her email read.
Another Kennedy ally, Del Bigtree, an anti-vaccine activist who served as Kennedy's communications director during his presidential run, said the secretary "is trying to speak to all sides."
With Kennedy as head of HHS, President Donald Trump has offered more tepid support for vaccination than he did during his first term. HHS has largely silenced the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the outbreak. And HHS has appointed a vaccine skeptic to investigate the debunked link between vaccination and autism.
The fact that anti-vaccine activists still count Kennedy as an ally shouldn't be a surprise, said Dorit Reiss, a professor at the University of California College of the Law at San Francisco, whose research focuses on public health law and anti-vaccine forces.
"Our health and human services secretary has been anti-vaccine for 20 years and has been the secretary for two months," she said in April. "He's still an anti-vaccine activist."
In response, HHS said, "Secretary Kennedy is not anti-vaccine — he is pro-safety, pro-transparency, and pro-accountability."
Following the second child's death in Texas, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), leader of the Senate health committee, called on "top health officials" to promote vaccination. Shortly thereafter, Kennedy wrote in an X post that "the most effective way to prevent the spread of measles is the MMR vaccine."
Hours later in a separate X post, he went on to praise the work of two local doctors who have criticized measles vaccination, and their treatment of measles patients with unproven therapies — budesonide and clarithromycin. Neither has been proved effective as measles treatments and both could have serious side effects, medical experts have said.
The media "don't notice how he de-emphasizes [vaccination] by just burying it in with a bunch of the other stuff about vitamin A, steroids, better diet, etc.," said David Gorski, managing editor of Science-Based Medicine, a website run primarily by physicians that debunks medical misinformation. "It's like they've learned nothing."
Between those two statements, Kennedy drew headlines that portrayed him as a supporter of vaccines, including "Kennedy announces support for measles vaccine amid outbreak" in Politico and "RFK Jr. makes new push for vaccine after 2nd child dies of measles" on Today.com.
After a CBS News interview released a few days later, Kennedy received similar coverage. An initial clip highlighted Kennedy saying he "encourages" vaccination — but left out the context of his saying he was unsure whether the second child's death was due to measles. Kennedy also falsely stated again that vaccines are not properly safety-tested, a claim he has made repeatedly.
In the interview with McGraw, better known as Dr. Phil, Kennedy claimed that one of his top three priorities is "making sure the vaccines are safe." He said, erroneously, that the mumps portion and the combination MMR vaccine were never safety-tested. Medical experts said the MMR vaccine has been monitored for decades.
In response to questions about these claims, HHS said Kennedy would institute placebo testing for all "new vaccines," but it did not fully clarify what that would mean. Medical experts say if that form of testing is applied to already approved vaccines, it could be unethical in some cases.
Kennedy also told an audience member he's looking into whether children develop autism after they receive the MMR vaccine — a link that has been thoroughly debunked. More than a dozen studies in peer-reviewed top journals in recent decades have rejected this link.
When Kennedy talks, he "mixes a blend of fact and fiction, and since he is the highest health official in the country, that's dangerous," said Tom Frieden, CDC director under President Barack Obama and president and chief executive of the nonprofit Resolve to Save Lives. "Health advice is best provided by doctors who are deeply experienced with the facts about vaccines, and anything that undermines trust in measles and other vaccines undermines the health and safety of our kids."
When it comes to news about measles, Kennedy allies have released information to develop a narrative around the illness before others can debunk it.
On April 5, controversial scientist Robert Malone was the first to write that "Another Texas Child Dies a Tragic Death After Recovering from Measles."
According to Malone, medical mismanagement was to blame. In a Substack post to his hundreds of thousands of followers, Malone said he wrote after hearing from a physician he said had knowledge of the child's care.
The press was amplifying the measles outbreak for the "political purposes" of smearing Kennedy, Malone told The Post. Malone previously sued The Post, alleging defamation over the newspaper's reporting on his advocacy against the coronavirus vaccine. The case was dismissed in 2023.
A day after Malone's Substack account, the Texas Department of State Health Services reported the "second measles death" in a "school-aged child who tested positive for measles." The child died of what "doctors described as measles pulmonary failure. The child was not vaccinated and had no reported underlying conditions."
Craig Spencer, an associate professor of public health and emergency medicine at Brown University, who monitors the rhetoric of the anti-vaccine movement, said he was struck by Kennedy's post endorsing vaccines as the most effective way to prevent measles' spread. He took note that the phrase came in the third paragraph of a long post. And he said the post on X was edited to add language suggesting the measles outbreak was "flattening," which independent fact-checkers and experts have said is misleading.
Spencer interpreted the message and its revision as an attempt to speak to two audiences.
"If you look at all the replies, it was a mix of basically, 'Look, he says vaccines are really important' and 'Oh, my God, I can't believe you are betraying us,'" Spencer said. "It was fascinating to see how people saw this moment different."
Children's Health Defense, Kennedy's former organization, also has published information about the ongoing measles outbreak. Some of it has highlighted the doctors Kennedy praised. The organization's advocates have argued that measles may not have killed them, suggesting poor medical treatment and other medical conditions might have.
The group, along with others, has sued The Post and other news organizations on antitrust grounds alleging suppression of what it claims is "wholly accurate and legitimate reporting" about vaccine danger.
On CBS News, Kennedy also argued that the second child that Texas health officials said died due to measles succumbed to other medical conditions.
This is all part of the playbook for Kennedy and his allies, said Tara Smith, an epidemiologist who follows anti-vaccine groups.
"It's just something that they have really gotten good at over the years, is a kind of doublespeak," she said.
Caitlin Gilbert, Fenit Nirappil, Rachel Roubein and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report.
Word count: 1918
Copyright WP Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post May 11, 2025
Five years after the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic, School of Public Health experts look to Washington as they weigh in on where our biosurveillance tools and preparedness systems stand now: What’s changed, what hasn’t and what must be built to make us ready for the next pandemic?
LOOSENING UP — The continued spread of measles throughout the country isn’t stopping some states from trying to make it easier for parents to skirt school vaccine requirements for their children, POLITICO’s Lauren Gardner reports.
Idaho and West Virginia lawmakers recently loosened rules on vaccine mandates, while lawmakers from Florida, Louisiana and Texas are weighing measures that would make it more difficult for health providers to deny care — from organ transplants to pediatric well visits — to people who aren’t vaccinated.
Why it matters: The state efforts, among others that would crack down on the use of certain vaccines, come amid longtime vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s ascent to power in Washington as HHS secretary.
Texas, which has been the cradle of domestic vaccine resistance for the past decade, is now the epicenter of an exploding measles outbreak.
The Office of the Provost, in conjunction with the John Nicholas Brown Center for Advanced Study, sponsors year-long fellowships for Brown University faculty members to conduct research on Brown University's historical legacy.
This fellowship in University History represents Brown's ongoing commitment to uncovering and understanding its institutional history through scholarly research and community engagement. One fellowship is awarded per year.
In support of work on their project, the fellow receives one-course release during the fellowship year, research funds of $2,500, and the support of one Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award (UTRA) to assist with research activities. Fellows become integral members of the JNBC scholarly community, participating in seminars and other intellectual activities.
Peering into wastewater for public health has a history dating back at least to the late 19th century, when a biologist in Boston cultured sewage in beef jelly, bouillon, boiled potatoes, and milk to see if anything would grow. Later, scientists in Scotland looked at wastewater to assess the spread of typhoid. After injecting monkeys with sewage in the 1930s, American researchers realized that wastewater polio virus concentrations correlated with community infections. It was the COVID-19 pandemic, however, that led to skyrocketing investment in wastewater disease surveillance in the United States—this time with the aid of modern biotechnology and without bouillon or monkeys.
As COVID transitioned from a deadly novelty to something closer to a mundane nuisance, testing for the virus fell off a cliff. Wastewater surveillance became central to public health officials’ ability to track COVID. The same is true for other threats, like H5N1 avian influenza. Bird flu has now spread from wild birds, to poultry, to cattle, and, worryingly, to a wide variety of other mammals, including people. Still testing remains limited. The federal government has invested at least $500 million in building wastewater-surveillance capacity since 2021. But that funding expires in September. Jennifer Nuzzo, an epidemiologist who is the director of The Brown University Pandemic Center, told me we may soon be left with an even murkier understanding of how diseases like COVID and bird flu are spreading.
With the United States facing its largest single measles outbreak in 25 years, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will direct federal health agencies to explore potential new treatments for the disease, including vitamins, according to an H.H.S. spokesman. The decision is the latest in a series of actions by the nation’s top health official that experts fear will undermine public confidence in vaccines as an essential public health tool.
The announcement comes as Mr. Kennedy faces intense backlash for his handling ofthe outbreak. It has swept through large areas of the Southwest where vaccination rates are low, infecting hundreds and killing two young girls. On Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 930 cases nationwide, most of which are associated with the Southwest outbreak.
Eight Brown faculty members were elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences this year alongside 240 other individuals, the Academy announced on April 23.
The Academy, which was founded in 1780, honors interdisciplinary scholars who are innovative leaders in their fields. Every year, the Academy elects new members who will engage in “cross-disciplinary efforts to produce reflective, independent and pragmatic studies that inform public policy and advance the public good,” according to its website.
In this episode, Joseph Harris explores the actions taken by the Trump administration to dismantle U.S. foreign aid and the consequences that these actions will have for global health. He sits down with Dr. Beth Cameron, a former Senior Adviser to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); Nidhi Bouri, former Deputy Assistant Administrator at USAID; Dr. Brooke Nichols, Associate Professor of Global Health at Boston University and creator of as U.S. aid freeze impact tracker; and Sheena Adams, Global Communications Director for The Accountability Lab, which launched its own Global Aid Freeze Tracker.
Soon after President Donald J. Trump took office for his second term, thousands of health websites run by the federal government that kept the public informed about infectious diseases, mental health, vaccines and more were taken offline.
Many eventually returned — in large part because a judge ordered the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to temporarily restore the pages — but some had been altered, with sections on topics such as health equity and teen pregnancy deleted. The changes, along with uncertainty around the future of these sites, has led some public health experts to question whether the websites can still be trusted as the gold standard of trustworthy health information, as they’ve long been regarded.
Federal health agencies are already facing a crisis of confidence. When a recent national poll asked respondents how much trust they had in the C.D.C. to make the right health recommendations, more than one-third replied “not much” or “not at all.” Nearly half said the same about the Food and Drug Administration.
Experts fear that with less trust in public health institutions, more people seeking medical information might turn to social media, where misinformation is rampant. That has made it all the more valuable for the public to find evidenced-based sources of health information.
Here are five websites run by independent organizations that have accurate, easy-to-understand information.
The vacuum left by the US threatens irreparable damage to global health institutions, with the WHO bearing a disproportionate burden. The organisation must view this crisis as an opportunity to develop into an entity that is leaner with greater agency to carry out its most essential, life-saving tasks.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is in a moment of crisis. The decision by the US to withdraw from the organisation leaves the WHO with a deficit of about 15% of its total funding through the end of 2025 and 45% projected for 2026-27.